Fanying Meng

Background: While physical exercise has been shown to benefit the attentional networks in adolescents, older adults, and clinical populations, the specific associations regarding typically developing children remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between football training experience and attentional sub-networks in boys aged 7–11 years. Methods: A total of 94 boys aged 7–11 years were recruited in this cross-sectional study and categorized into a football group ( n = 47, ≥1 year of systematic football training) and a control group ( n = 47, with no systematic extracurricular sports training, engaging only in regular school physical education classes). All participants completed the Attention Network Test to assess the efficiency of three sub-networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Results: The football group showed significantly higher efficiency in both the alerting and executive control networks compared with the control group, with the latter characterized by a smaller conflict effect. Conversely, no significant group difference was found in orienting network efficiency. Conclusion: These findings suggest a selective association between football training experience and attentional networks, specifically highlighting advantages in the alerting and executive control networks. This study provides empirical support for considering football as a developmentally appropriate activity that is associated with specific attentional advantages in boys aged 7–11 years.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE) on cognitive flexibility in young adults with differing levels of aerobic fitness. Sixty-six young adults were grouped into high- and low-fit groups based on their final running distance on the 20 m Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test. Individuals participated in a 10 min HIIE, a 20 min HIIE, a 20 min MICE, and a control session (reading quietly in a chair) in a counterbalanced order. The more-odd shifting task was completed before and approximately 5 min after each intervention to assess cognitive flexibility. The results showed that young adults with a high fitness level gained greater benefits in terms of switch cost from the 20 min HIIE, while low-fitness participants benefited more from the 10 min HIIE and the 20 min MICE. These findings suggest that aerobic fitness may influence the effect of acute HIIE and MICE on cognitive flexibility. Young adults should consider individual fitness level when adopting time-effective and appropriate exercise routines to improve cognitive flexibility.

Although physical activity is associated with better attentional functioning in elderly populations or in specific clinical populations, the association between physical activity level and attention has been less studied in young adult populations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the positive effects of physical activity on attentional networks extend to young adults. In total, 57 college students were recruited and assigned to one of three groups of physical activity levels (high, moderate, and low) based on their self-reported exercise. Each participant completed the Attention Network Test to evaluate the efficiency of three components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Compared with the low physical activity group, both the high and moderate physical activity groups exhibited better executive control. In addition, the efficiency of the executive control network was positively correlated with physical activity. By contrast, no statistically significant differences were detected among these three groups for the functioning of the alerting or orienting networks. These findings suggested that physical activity had a positive effect on attention in young adults, with the benefit primarily observed for the executive control component rather than for the alerting and orienting components of attention.

This study examined the immediate and sustained effects of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE) on cognitive flexibility in young adults. Participants (n = 56) engaged in (1) a session of HIIE, involving 10 sets of one-minute treadmill running at an intensity targeting 90% heart rate reserve (HRR) interspersed with self-paced walking at 50% HRR; (2) a session of MICE, involving a 20 min treadmill running at an intensity of 40–59% HRR; and (3) a control session, involving 24 min of resting on separate days in a counterbalanced order. Using a more-odd shifting task, cognitive flexibility was assessed before the intervention (t₀), immediately after the session (t₁), and then at 30 min (t₂) after the session. During the more-odd shifting task, the switch cost of response time (RT) immediately after the HIIE was significantly reduced compared to that before exercise, suggesting beneficial effects on cognitive flexibility. Additionally, the impacts of HIIE were maintained for 30 min post-exercise. However, improved cognitive flexibility was not observed until 30 min after the MICE intervention. HIIE might represent a time-efficient approach for enhancing cognitive flexibility.